Quasimodogeniti (John 20)
St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church, Laramie, WY
18/19 April A+D 2020, Pr. Mark Preus
We Americans don’t like authoritarian dictators. Those who appeal to their authority without explaining the reason for their authority are viewed with skepticism and often downright contempt. The famous Prussian general Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, who helped train American soldiers in the Revolutionary War said that the difference between German soldiers and American soldiers was this. When he told a German soldier to do something, he would do it. When he told an American soldier to do something, the soldier asked why.
I consider this to be a noble trait, though it is annoying to many. But now Americans are all confused about what to think about this virus that is plaguing our health, our wealth, and our day to day lives. Which authorities should we believe? Are the data reliable? What authority do they have? The authority of government? The authority of reason? Many Americans continue the custom of their forefathers in asking those who tell them to do something, “Why?”
Whether we like it or not, our lives depend on authority. God gives the government authority to punish evildoers and reward those who do good, but this authority does not extend beyond evidence of wrongdoing or welldoing. We are protected from evil through this authority. God gives parents the authority to discipline and teach their children, but He does not give them authority beyond what He commands. We are taught how to live by this authority. And we have our own minds that God gave us, our common sense, our reason to discern what is true and not true. That is an authority we need to live life on earth. We rely on knowing that something is true – we rely on authority – before we act on it. But when there is no clear authority, we have a certain kind of anarchy in our minds. Anarchy means no authority. And though things are relatively peaceful in our country right now, things are not peaceful in the hearts and minds of many Americans, because there is no clear and accepted authority telling us how much we should fear this virus and whether the measures taken by the government are justified or not.
Thomas’s authority was his sight. He saw Jesus dead and now he wanted to see him alive before he would believe that he was risen from the dead. “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” Seeing is believing, so the saying goes. But the authority of our minds and reason, and the authority of the government, and even that of our own parents is limited to what we see, and what do we see?
We see people die and stay dead. We see that death still stings with sin. We see that sin and death still run rampant in the world and in our lives. The government has no authority to tell us that our sins will not kill us. Our parents through whom God gave us life have no authority to save us from death. They die and most of us have to visit their funerals and weep over their silent and unauthoritative bodies. Our reason can’t grasp any authority that does not end in death.
But God has all authority. He has authority over life and death. He created us. He made everything. He created our reason. He establishes all authorities that are beneath Him, whether our parents or the government. And He has given all authority in heaven and on earth to His Son, who became a Man, and who spoke with authority, not as the Scribes, and who acted with authority over disease and sickness and the wind and weather and the sea, and yes, even over death.
Jesus says in His high priestly prayer to the Father in John seventeen,
Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him.
The hour had come to show His authority. The hour had come to show the glory of God in the Person of His Son Jesus. The Father gave all authority to a Man. What authority? Authority over all flesh. How does Jesus use His authority over all flesh? He gives eternal life to as many as the Father has given Him.
This is the authority that we base our lives on. People bask in their own glory when they show their power and authority. Kings, presidents, senators, congressmen, police officers, teachers, parents, all flaunt their authority in some way because they are sinners. Pilate asked Jesus somewhat indignantly whether he knew that Pilate had authority to put him to death. Jesus replied, “You would have no authority at all unless it were given to you from above.”
Therefore all earthly glory is vain and worthless. Those who were praised yesterday are forgotten tomorrow. But not Jesus. He was mocked and spat on and beaten and nailed to a cross on a yesterday, and He was not forgotten. He rose triumphant and glorious from the grave. Why? Because He had authority over all flesh.
He used His power and authority to face sin and sickness and death. He used His authority not for His own sake, but for all flesh, for us poor sinners. He did not use His authority to coerce us into submission. He did not threaten fines and punishments and jail. He paid our debt. He took our punishment. He was imprisoned in our grave. He used His authority to take our place under the Law that condemns us to death and hell.
Let this truth sink deep into your hearts. There is no authority greater than that which can defeat all other authorities. Sin kills every king and ruler and father and mother. Death takes every potentate. The devil is the prince of this world and spread fear and panic in the world’s most prosperous and powerful countries. And there isn’t a single thing our reason can do about it. There isn’t a single thing our seeing and figuring things out can do against these authorities that are greater than us. As the Psalm (146) says,
Do not put your trust in princes,
Nor in a son of man, in whom there is no help.
His spirit departs, he returns to his earth;
In that very day his plans perish.
But Jesus’ authority is greater than all these. His is the authority of the meek and patient Lamb of God, who was slaughtered for us so that His blood might turn Death’s Angel away. The authority of Jesus Christ the Son of God which His Father has given Him is the authority over all flesh. It is the authority to take your sins away from You and bear them in His body with all their guilt and all their remorse and with all their death and judgment. And that is His glory. It is the glory of showing the love that He has shared with the Father and the Holy Spirit from eternity. It is the authority of overcoming evil with good.
Brothers and sisters, base your lives on this. Many of us have been made to be more alone these dark days. How have you used your time? Do you have authority over your own life? How have you used this authority? Have you used it for sinful pleasures that fade? Have you claimed authority to lash out at those you should love? Do lust or anger or envy have authority over you? If you have felt fear, have you given this fear to Him who has authority over all fear, or does fear have authority over you? Have you worried about money? Does money have authority over you? Have you trusted in the facts you have been given to take away your fear? Does your understanding have authority over you?
Today is the day of a greater authority than the sinful weakness we find wrapped around our souls every day. Mary saw Him alive from the dead. He walked with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus and revealed Himself in the Scriptures and the breaking of bread. He appeared on evening after His resurrection to the ten, and then on Quasimodogeniti to the eleven. He appeared on the Sea of Tiberias to Peter and six other disciples, and to 500 brothers at once, many who were still alive when Paul wrote 1 Corinthians. He appeared to James, his brother, and lastly to Paul on the road to Damascus. He appeared alive from the dead. The Prophets foretold it. The four Evangelists wrote what happened. These things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name. This is the testimony of the Spirit. This is the authority of God to tell you that today is the day of grace, that there is an authority greater than what other authorities have over you, greater than governments and powers and your own reason.
The hour has already come and now is still for the Father to be glorified in the Son, because Jesus has authority over all flesh. He has defeated the authority of sin over your conscience because He died for it all, but behold He lives without any of it. He has defeated the authority of death because He is risen from death, He is risen indeed. He has defeated the fear the devil inspires in poor mortals who wander like sheep straying, looking for some authority to lead them, but hear the voice of the Shepherd who laid down His life for His sheep, who lives for you as He suffered and died for you. “Peace be with you.”
This is the day of resurrection. This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. We will rejoice and be glad in the authority that is greater than all other authorities.
Jesus came into a locked room. Walls and space had no authority over Him. He is God in glorified man. He came where the disciples were cowering in fear because of the power and authority of the Jews who crucified their Lord. He came where the disciples were afraid because they had abandoned their Lord, and He wasn’t with them. But He came to them. He to the fearful and the afraid. He came to those over whom death held their sins and so held them in fear. He came to where the authority of sin and death ruled, and He shattered all of their power with His life, and He spoke this life in words, “Peace be to you!” Peace, not war. Peace, not fear. Peace, not uncertainty. Peace, not a guilty conscience. Peace, not a list of things for you to do and find out before you can rest. Peace, not any fear of sin or death or devil or sickness or world or anything in all creation. Peace be to you.
And He showed them His hands and His side, and the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. They were happy to see this authority that brought peace to them, and this same authority brings peace to you too today.
Because He said it again. Peace to you. And He gave that peace so that we might have it forever. The Lord Jesus breathed on His disciples and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whosever sins you forgive, they are forgiven. Whosever sins you retain they are retained.” Those who hold on to their sins are those who hold on to the authority of sin. They are the unrepentant, who cling to their sins. They believe that sin and death are more powerful than Jesus. Their sins are retained, held on to. However confident they feel, they belong to fear and to the devil who inspires this fear. They belong to the hell where they will be afraid forever.
But to the repentant; to those who mourn over their sins and long to be freed from them; to the poor in spirit; to those who see that they have no authority over sin and death, but are helpless in the face of it; to you who have fallen into sin and you can’t raise yourself; to you who have seen death take those you love and who feel it in your mortal body; to you who have fought and lost, and your reason and your money and your success can’t help you. To you Jesus comes and breaks through the walls of your conscience, strips the devil or his armor, takes hold of sin by the neck and says, “Don’t you dare touch this flesh. I, not you, have authority over all flesh. So begone, fear! Get behind me, Satan, because I have in mind the things of God, and the things of God are to speak to this poor sinner and tell him that he is forgiven, that his sins are removed as far as the east is from the west, that death has no dominion over him because it has no dominion over Me, and I speak the words of eternal life, and now to you, poor sinner, poor fearful flesh, I speak. I am the Lord, and I have made this day, and you will rejoice and be glad in it because it is the day of grace and mercy and authority over all that ails you. It is the peace of sin forgiven.
“Receive the Holy Spirit. He testifies to the truth that I died and rose for you. And the water, your baptism testifies that as the Father said to me “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,” so He says that to you. The water testifies that I died and rose for you, and so my death is your death, My resurrection is your resurrection, My life is your life.
“Receive the Holy Spirit in the forgiveness of your sins. The blood I shed testifies to you today. Take and eat My body and take and drink my blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. And the Spirit and the water and the blood agree that I died for you and rose for you and your sins truly are removed, sent away from you and out of the Father’s sight, and you are clean and pure, and though you die, yet you shall live in the favor and love and glory of God forever. I have authority over all flesh and all of this authority is in the Word the Spirit speaks and joins to water and blood.
“You don’t need to see me to know I am your Lord and your God. You only need to hear and listen to the words that come from the Conqueror of your sin and death. The word is written and it is spoken by the mouth of a sinner whom I sent and it is joined to water and bread and wine, and this word is the authority greater than all other authorities. It is the means by which God is glorified because God is glorified in giving you peace. Be at peace, child. Take courage, your sins are forgiven. Don’t be afraid; fear must flee from Me who have opened the gate to everlasting life. Nothing in all creation has authority over this word that tells to poor sinners, “I forgive you all your sins.” So do not look at the sinful pastor. Listen to Me, and you will see Me. Don’t focus on the water; listen to me and you will know that you are clothed with Me and my righteousness, and nothing dark or sinful or deadly can pierce through that armor. Don’t focus on the bread and wine; listen to Me and you will taste and see that all evil is overcome by the good placed in your mouth, the body that conquered sin and death, and the blood that sets you free from sin and fear and death and devil, that washed your robes clean and presents you before God pure and undefiled, and so be unafraid. I am with you. My peace is with you. Let not your hearts be troubled; neither let them be afraid. Live your life with joy on this earth, even in sadness. Learn to love, as I have loved you. Learn to forgive and overcome evil with good. Because you have all authority in heaven and on earth to rejoice and be glad that you overcome sin and death and devil and the world and all fear through faith in Me.” Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Amen.